Customer oriented telecommunications network

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to arrangements for interconnecting a plurality of stand-alone switches by data and communication channels (the latter typically used for communicating voice signals) in such a way as to make the plurality of switches act as if they were one switch. The invention further relates to arrangements for permitting groups of lines, the groups connected to different stand-alone switches, to be treated essentially as if they were connected to a single switch. Each switch of a symbiotic network (a group of stand-alone switches) or a virtual symbiotic network (the grouping of the groups of lines) accesses pertinent data in its own data base or the data base of one of the other switches of the symbiotic or virtual symbiotic network and treats the results of such data base accesses as if they were made internally in the switch. For a symbiotic network the trunks of all the switches of the network going to a common destination (and one such common destination can be any of the switches of another symbiotic network) are grouped into a single group so that an outgoing call can readily be made over a trunk connected to any of the switches of the symbiotic network. Similarly, incoming trunks to any switch of the symbiotic network from a common external source can be grouped into a single trunk group at that external source (which can be another symbiotic network). Advantageously, such an arrangement provides a convenient way of achieving the advantages of a giant switch without requiring the capacity of such a switch and without requiring the geographic concentration of traffic necessary to keep the links to a giant switch reasonably short. Advantageously, a virtual symbiotic network provides an economical and flexible solution to the problem of providing services such as wide area Centrex.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to the applications of:

Menachem T. Ardon entitled "Improved Telecommunications Network" bearingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/485,422;

Menachem T. Ardon entitled "Improved Trunk Utilization In ATelecommunications Network" bearing U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/485,927; and

Menachem T. Ardon entitled "Distributed Key Telephone Station Network"U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/485,421 which applications areassigned to the assignee of the present application, and are being filedconcurrently herewith.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to the applications of:

Menachem T. Ardon entitled "Improved Telecommunications Network" bearingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/485,422;

Menachem T. Ardon entitled "Improved Trunk Utilization In ATelecommunications Network" bearing U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/485,927; and

Menachem T. Ardon entitled "Distributed Key Telephone Station Network"U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/485,421 which applications areassigned to the assignee of the present application, and are being filedconcurrently herewith.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to improved methods and apparatus forestablishing inter-office telecommunications calls, and especially fornetworks serving large customers with scattered locations.

Problem

A recent trend in telecommunications networks is the demand for more andmore features and services of a type requiring more than the simpleconnection of two customers, the called customer being specified by adirectory number that directly specifies the switching system servingthat customer. Examples include 800 service wherein location of thecalled party is specified by a data base which converts an arbitrary 800number into a conventional switch specified number; calls to largeautomatic call distributor systems wherein a given directory number maybe served by agents in many locations, complex Centrex arrangementsfeaturing call forwarding wherein the first number is called but thecalls are automatically rerouted to a second number, shared directoryservice wherein a call is completed to whichever of two or moretelephones (for example, a cellular phone and a home telephone or agroup of key telephone stations) answers first, screened calls whereinonly outgoing calls to certain destinations or incoming calls fromcertain sources are completed; and many others.

Many of these situations are handled through the use of intelligentnetworks and advanced intelligent networks, networks which rely on adata base shared by many switches for helping to route calls properly.The requirement to access a data base on all calls of a certain classpresents problems in maintaining a reliable data base and in delayingall calls for the query of such a data base. Another class of problemsis encountered in trying to meet requirements for highly reliableservice and in utilizing expensive resources such as speech recognitionsystems which are not always efficiently utilized within one switch.

The limitations of a switch are usually determined by the capacity ofthe switch, the traffic which can be conveniently gathered in onelocation, and the degree of community of interest among the telephonecustomers in a particular geographic area. For a particular customer,the community of interest may be spread over more than one geographicarea. This size may not be appropriate for efficient interswitchcommunications (the size of the trunk groups may be too small); forefficient utilization of expensive resources such as data basesdedicated to switch or speech recognition systems; or for the effectivedeployment of operation administration and maintenance systems(switching systems may be too small to justify a modern sophisticatedOperations, Administration and Maintenance (OA&M) system.

A problem of the prior art is that the size of the switching system maybe inconsistent with other factors for giving the most economic servicein the face of requirements for sophisticated services.

Solution

The above problems are significantly alleviated and advances made overthe prior art through the use of a symbiotic network, i.e., a cluster ofinterconnected switching systems which appear to the outside worldincluding both the connected customers and the connected public switchtelephone network, as a single switch. From the point of view offeatures offered to each calling customer and each incoming call andfeatures offered to each called customer or each outgoing call,communications between members of the cluster and treated as if theywere intraswitch communications through the use of interswitch signalingcapabilities for signaling what is normally considered intraswitchinformation, such as the data base of a single switch, or the controlprocess of a call, between switches of the cluster. A virtual symbioticnetwork seeks to provide most of the advantages of a symbiotic networkto a preselected portion of the subscribers connected to a plurality ofswitches. Typically, the portions of subscribers which are associatedvia such a virtual symbiotic network are the lines of a single customer,for example, an area wide Centrex customer whose lines are served bymany switches in different geographic locations. Virtual or real datacircuits are provided among the switches of a virtual symbiotic networkin order to provide access from one switch to the data of another switchin essentially the same manner as data circuits are provided and used ina symbiotic network. However, the voice connections among the switchesof a virtual symbiotic network are made through the public switchedtelephone network, through conventional trunk connections, or throughconnections dedicated to the customer among these switches.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, if a call is received inone switch of a virtual symbiotic network, and that switch recognizesthat the call is to be terminated in another switch, the first switchaccesses translation information for the terminating customer throughthe use of a signaling message sent prior to establishing a connectionto the terminating switch serving that terminating number. The messageis sent over a data channel; one example of such a data channel is adata channel of a common channel signaling system. The result of such arequest for information is that the first switch may find that the callis to be forwarded, that the call is to a multi-line hunting grouphaving members in several switches or that the call is to a telephonethat is a pan of a key telephone system having extensions in severalswitches, or that the called party is busy and no call forwarding orcall waiting can be invoked. Based on the information that the firstswitch receives, a busy signal can be returned, or the call can beestablished to the second switch, to another switch, or the call can beestablished to a switch and additional messages required for operatingkey telephone system displays be sent to other switches.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, only one primarycontrolling process is associated with the ingress switch and only oneprimary controlling process is associated with the egress switch forcalls within a virtual symbiotic network. The primary control remainswith the two processes at the end of the connection, but intermediateprocesses can be used to control connections over trunks of the publicswitched telephone network.

In accordance with another aspect of applicant's invention, expensiveresources, such as speech recognition equipment, can be provided withinthe symbiotic network without having to provide this equipment on everyswitch. Each switch can control establishment of a connection to theshared resource under the control of the originating or incomingprocess, or under the control of the terminating or outgoing process.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention when a call comes intoone switch of the cluster, that switch either directly accesses the busyidle information for that call or sends a query to the switch thatserves the called customer. If the called customer is busy and has nocall waiting service, busy tone is returned via the switch thatoriginally received the call. Control of the connection within thecluster is shared between the switches of the cluster in contrast to thesituation wherein a call is controlled only by the two end switches ofthe call.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, dedicated trunks onseveral switches of the virtual symbiotic network and connected to acommon destination are made members of a single larger trunk group whichprovides both diversity to overcome trouble in one switch, andefficiency of a large trunk group.

The work-at-home movement is an important factor in making it desirableto have a symbiotic network, i.e., a network which acts as if it were asingle switching system, or a virtual symbiotic network. The presence ofsuch a network means that a line to any telecommunication station servedby the network can be treated as if it were one extension of a Centrexserving a large customer. Similarly, such a large customer having aplurality of locations served by different switching systems of thesymbiotic or virtual symbiotic network can have its telecommunicationstations treated essentially as if they were all served from a singleswitching system, i.e., as if they were a single Centrex location. Inone specific application, a group of secretaries serving a group ofprincipals is normally combined into a key telephone system which may,in turn, be part of a Centrex. In order for the secretaries to servetheir principals effectively, the secretaries need a display indicatingwhich telephone stations are currently busy, which are currently beingalerted so that they may answer incoming telephone calls, and to becertain that if they are making an outgoing call, no one else will seizethe same outgoing telephone line. If a symbiotic or virtual symbioticnetwork serves this boss/secretary group, the telephone displays arecontinuously updated.

In accordance with one feature of the invention, a station may beeffectively treated as if it were connected to a symbiotic network evenif it is connected to switch that is not part of the network, i.e., aswitch connected to the symbiotic network by trunks through the publicswitched telephone network. Effectively, that line is on a virtualsymbiotic network that is an enlargement of the main symbiotic networkserving the other stations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network in accordance with the principlesof the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a symbiotic network and a connected switch;

FIG. 3 illustrates the reception of a call in a symbiotic or virtualsymbiotic network;

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate the method of accessing data within a symbioticor virtual symbiotic network;

FIG. 6 illustrates the process of establishing a connection within asymbiotic network;

FIG. 7 illustrates the process of selecting a path within a symbioticnetwork;

FIG. 8 illustrates the process of selecting an outgoing trunk from asymbiotic network;

FIG. 9 illustrates the process of selecting a port of a multi-line huntgroup;

FIG. 10 illustrates a symbiotic network used to control a key telephonesystem with key telephone stations connected to a plurality of switchesof the symbiotic network and to one switch outside the symbioticnetwork;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of the method for controlling the keytelephone system of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 illustrates the process of making a connection between a port ofa symbiotic network and a port outside the symbiotic network;essentially the same process can be used to establish connections withina virtual symbiotic network;

FIG. 13 illustrates a virtual symbiotic network;

FIG. 14 illustrates data for implementing a wide area Centrex using avirtual symbiotic network;

FIG. 15 illustrates the process of establishing a call in a virtualsymbiotic network;

FIG. 16 illustrates the use of a symbiotic network for numberportability;

FIG. 17 illustrates the data of an ingress or egress process of asymbiotic network; and

FIG. 18 illustrates the data of a controlled process of a symbioticnetwork.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows the treatment of the call in the prior art and FIG. 2 showsthe treatment of the call in accordance with the principles ofapplicant's invention. A symbiotic network acts as if it were a singleswitch such that all calls from any line or trunk connected to thenetwork to any other line or trunk connected to the network is treatedas if it were a call from a line or trunk connected to a single switchto another line or trunk connected to the same switch. In such anetwork, it is desirable to permit the switches connected to theincoming trunk or originating line to have access to all informationrequired for establishing a call, and to give the same access to theswitch connected to the outgoing trunk or terminating line. Lines andtrunks are each terminated on a port of the switch.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating call processing in the prior art.Shown in FIG. 1 are three switching systems (switches), S1, S2, and S3.Trunk group T12 connects switches S1 and S2, T23 connects S2 and S3, andT13 connects S1 and S3. An incoming trunk 11 and originating line 10connected to S1 are served by an originating process or an incomingprocess. To clarify subsequent descriptions herein, these are referredto as ingress processes. If an originating or incoming call isrecognized as being a call that terminates on switch S3, then an egressprocess is established and is used to control the call from the S1 sideof one of the trunks in trunk group T13. All three switches areconnected to a data network 6, which is used to communicate signalingmessages between the switches. When switch S1 wishes to establish a callwhich terminates on switch S3, then switch S1 sends a data message to S3identifying the trunk selected for that call and the terminating partyof that call. Switch S3 then establishes an ingress process associatedwith the other end of the selected trunk from trunk group T13. S3 treatsthis as an incoming call, S3 establishes a connection, for example toterminating line 30, and associates with that terminating line an egressprocess for controlling the terminating end of the connection within S3.

A process is a block of memory used to store all information necessaryto control some part of a call and is also the software necessary forinterpreting this information and for controlling the call accordingly.Systems such as the 5ESS® switch, manufactured by AT&T Network Systems,have an ingress process and an egress process for all calls within aswitch. The ingress process performing incoming or originatingfunctions, and the egress process performing terminating or outgoingprocesses. (As indicated above, the term ingress and egress process mayactually represent two different types of processes.)

Lines and trunks are connected to ports of a switching system. Eachingress or process is associated with a port and controls callprocessing for that port.

FIG. 1 also illustrates a call according to the principles of the priorart. The call is to a group, such as a Centrex, whose lines are spreadover three switching systems, S1, S2, and S3. In accordance with theprinciples of the prior art, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the call happensto be received in switch S1, which is closest to the originator of thecall. Switch S1 does not serve the terminating line (30), nor does ithave the information necessary to determine where line 30 is located.Instead, it has the information that switch S2 can be used to access,directly or indirectly, the lines of the terminating Centrex. Switch S1therefore establishes a call to switch S2 and, essentially, switch S1acts as a tandem switch in the connection.

Switch S2 has a table indicating the location of all the lines in theCentrex. When switch S2 receives the call, it consults this table anddetermines that the desired terminating line is line 30 located onswitch S3. Switch S2 therefore establishes a connection to switch S3.Again, switch S2 acts as a tandem switch. In this case, switch S1 andswitch S2, each acting as a tandem switch, each have control of the callusing an incoming process and an outgoing process.

Finally, when the call reaches switch S3, the latter receives a callfrom an incoming trunk (incoming from switch S2) and the call isdestined for line 30 on switch S3. From the point of view of switch S3,therefore, this is an incoming call and is controlled by an incomingprocess associated with the incoming trunk and a terminating processassociated with the called line 30.

Note the characteristics of this arrangement for switching calls. Eachswitch depends upon its own data base and its own status information,indicating which lines and which trunks are available and which ones arebusy, and each switch has full control of calls set up in that switch.

FIG. 2 similar in general format to FIG. 1, illustrates the differencesbetween switches S1, S2, and S3 acting as independent switches andswitches S1, S2 and S3 acting together as a symbiotic network. Theswitches are connected by communication link groups C13, C12, and C23.The communication links in these groups being totally under the controlof the switches in the symbiotic network can be simplified to provideonly the most rudimentary communication signal transmission functions.For the purpose of this description, the term "switch" means astand-alone switching system with an internal Stored Program ControlProcessor and a communication network for interconnecting lines servedby the switch, trunks served by the switch, and communication links toother switches of a symbiotic network. A connection between incomingtrunk 11 and terminating line 30 has only 1 ingress process in switch 1one egress process in switch 3. The egress process in switch 1 and theingress process in switch 3 have been replaced by controlled processes.Each end of a communication path within the symbiotic network 5 isassociated with a controlled process which contains only the mostrudimentary information required to keep up the communication path. Theingress and egress processes perform all control functions for the calland cause the controlled processes to be established or terminated asrequired. A supplementary process is still associated with a connectionsto intelligent peripheral IP 24. The controlled processes are only forcontrolling the two ends of the intra-symbiotic network communicationpaths.

Contrast the process of establishing calls in the arrangement of FIG. 1with the process using the arrangement of FIG. 2, in which the call isset up in accordance with the principles of applicant's invention.

The switches of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are all program controlled switches.This is shown in switch S3 of FIG. 2 which contains a processor 33,which in turn includes a memory 34. The memory contains a program forcontrolling operations of the switch, contains data about the ports andthe routing for the switch, and contains dynamic data such as theprocesses. The line between the process and the line or trunk representsthe control exercised by the process, acting under the control of theprogram, on the line or trunk.

An originating or incoming process is assigned to control one end of acall in a symbiotic network, and a terminating or outgoing process isassigned to control the other end of a symbiotic network connection. Theprocesses are entirely analogous to comparable processes within a singleswitch in the prior art. As will be explained further, these processesperform the same functions in a symbiotic network as their counterpartsperform in a single switch except that the way in which they performthese functions requires data message access to send control messages,data request messages, and data response messages among the individualswitches of the symbiotic network.

The call is also received in switch S1. However, switch S1 instead ofsimply passing the call on to switch 2, makes an inquiry of switch S2 todetermine where the call is to be terminated. Switch S1 has previouslydetermined from its own data base that the terminating number is thenumber of a Centrex whose descriptive table is to be found in switch S2.In response to the information obtained from switch S2, switch S1 nowknows that the call is to be terminated on a line in switch S3. SwitchS1, under the control of the incoming process of the call, then checksswitch S3 to determine the .equipment location of the terminating lineand to determine whether that line is busy. A "busy" test in this caseincludes a check of whether the line has call waiting service; a linewith call waiting service is not considered busy unless the line alreadyhas a waiting call. If the line is not busy, switch S1 commands, via thesame or a subsequent signaling message, that the line should be seizedand marked busy so that no intervening calls are completed to that line.Switch S1 then controls the process of selecting facilities forinterconnecting switch S1 and switch S3. If communication paths areavailable between switch S1 and switch S3, then one of thesecommunication paths is seized and switch S1 orders that a connection beestablished within switch S1 between the incoming trunk and thecommunication path and in switch S3 between the communication path andthe terminating line. Alternatively, a path can be reserved until theterminating station answers in response to a ringing signal, thereafter,the reserved path is established. If no communication path is availablebetween switch S1 and switch S3 because all such paths are busy, switchS1 searches for possibilities of establishing a connection to switch S3via another switch. In this case, switch S1 has available access toswitch S2 via a communication path and queries switch S3 for informationas to the availability of a communication path connecting switches S3and S2. (Such information may have been returned earlier from switch S3,e.g., along with the response that the called line 30 is available.)Switch S1 then sends a command to switch S2 to establish an unmonitoredconnection between a communication path in C12 joining switches S1 andS2, and a communication path in C23 into connecting switch S2 and switchS3. This connection in switch S2 is under the control only of theprocess associated with the incoming trunk in switch S1 and theterminating line in switch S3 and is disconnected only in response to arequest from one of these processes. (This is the normal condition; inaddition, audit programs and craft requests may also take down theconnection in case of trouble.)

Switch S1 then requests switch S3 (either through a direct request orthrough a request made to the terminating process which has beenactivated in switch S3 following the busy test of line 30 and therecognition that this line is available and should be seized for thecall requested by the incoming process from switch S1) to cooperate inestablishing the path. The terminating process monitors for answer andtransmits an answer message to the incoming process in switch S1. SwitchS3 detects a called party disconnect, and passes a message to switch S1and responds to a calling party disconnect message from switch S1 bydisconnecting line 30. The ingress and egress processes communicate viaa virtual channel 52 set up between these processes and transmitted overdata network 6.

One of the advantages of a symbiotic network is that the size of thetrunk groups, connecting the symbiotic network with the rest of thepublic switched telephone network, can be made much larger. Effectively,all outgoing trunks from the symbiotic network to another destination,and one such destination may be a complete symbiotic network comprisinga plurality of switches, can be combined into a single trunk group fortrunk hunting purposes. Similarly, all the incoming trunks from a singlesource, and one such source may be a complete symbiotic network, canform a single trunk group for trunk hunting purposes; since thedestination switch of any outgoing trunk must be known to the signalingsystem of the source switch of what is an incoming trunk to thesymbiotic network, the source switch must know the destination switch ofeach such outgoing trunk within the group, unless a single signalingrecipient forwards signaling messages to the right switch within thesymbiotic network based on the trunk address. In FIG. 2, switch S4outside the symbiotic network 5, is connected to outgoing trunks 14 and31 from switches S1 and S3, respectively, trunks 14 and 31 being part ofa single group 51 for trunk hunting purposes. Similarly, incoming trunks11 and 32 are connected from switch S4 to switches S1 and S3respectively and these two trunks are part of a single group 41 fortrunk hunting purposes in switch S4.

FIG. 2 shows the switches of the symbiotic network interconnected by adata network 6 for the purpose of exchanging data and control messages.This generalized network may have a plurality of dedicated links and/ora dedicated subswitch for handling the greater volume of message trafficamong the switches. The ingress and egress processes of a symbioticnetwork connection conveniently communicate over the data network usinga virtual channel.

The above example illustrates a number of the principles used byapplicant in this embodiment to treat all calls served by the symbioticnetwork as if the calls were served within a single switch. Ifinformation is not available in a switch, but is available in anotherswitch, the normal process is to send the call to the second switch inaccordance with applicant's invention. A query is made by a commonchannel signaling message and the controlling process thereby obtainsthe information which it would otherwise obtain directly within theswitch if the symbiotic network were a single switch. Further, a singleoriginating or incoming process and a single terminating or outgoingprocess is used to control the call instead of having control relayedthrough a group of incoming and outgoing processes. Third, thecommunication channels interconnecting the switches of the symbioticnetwork are simple paths and do not require the normal signaling ofinformation that is required for controlling tandem calls. Thatsignaling need only be exchanged between the switch that contains theoriginating or incoming process and the switch that contains theoutgoing or terminating process.

For certain calls it may be necessary to temporarily connect a unit suchas Intelligent Peripheral 4 (IP 24) to a call in order to collectinformation from a caller or called party. One such intelligentperipheral is a speech recognition unit which in response to prompts toa caller, receives speech information from the caller an converts thisspeech into data possibly for transmission by data messages to anotherswitch for controlling a connection. Since intelligent peripherals arerelatively expensive, they may not be connected to every switch of anetwork especially if, as in the case of speech recognition units, acommon control is used for a plurality of individual speech recognitionunits. If such an intelligent peripheral has to be connected to a call,then a separate connection to that intelligent peripheral is establishedin this case over one of the trunks of trunk group T12. The connectionis under the control of the original ingress process and egress processin switch S1 connected to one side of the selected trunk in trunk groupT12. An ingress process in switch S2 connected to the other side of thattrunk and a supplementary process in S2 for controlling the intelligentperipheral IP 24. Note that in this as in other cases, an ingressprocess and an egress process or an ingress process and a supplementaryprocess are associated with every connection within a switching system.

Suppose that prior to establishing the call it was necessary to providethe caller with an announcement and to recognize speech commands by thecaller. Suppose, further, that the prompting equipment and speechrecognition equipment were sufficiently expensive that it was notavailable in switch 1. In the prior art (FIG. 1), the call would beconnected via a switch, such as for example switch 2, which hasavailable such equipment. In accordance with the principles ofapplicant's invention, this is not necessary. Instead, a connection isset up between switch S1 and switch S2 for the duration of the timerequired to perform the prompts and recognize the spoken commands by thecaller. This act would be under the control of an auxiliary process inswitch S2 and after the commands had been recognized, switch S2 wouldsend a message over the common channel signaling network indicating whatcommand had been supplied by the caller. This is the equivalent ofsetting up a connection within switch S1 to such equipment (which doesnot exist in this case) and having the auxiliary process which controlsthe speech processing equipment communicate within switch S1 to thecontrolling incoming or originating process. When the speech processingequipment is no longer needed on this call, the communication pathbetween switch S1 and switch S2 can be released, as can the connectionsin switch S1 and switch S2 to that communication path to allow thecaller to be connected to the speech processing equipment. As discussedhereinafter, the Intelligent Peripheral may be connected to a switch ora symbiotic network outside this symbiotic network. The ingress processand supplementary process communicate via a virtual channel set upbetween these processes and transmitted over data network 6.

In some cases, the switches of a symbiotic network may be in fairlyclose geographic proximity. It is then possible and desirable to provideemergency linkages among the switches to provide, for example, a back-upclock from one switch to another. Similarly, back-up data links may beprovided through the use of the data links of another switch. Emergencyaccess to E911 emergency service can be routed through an alternateswitch of the symbiotic network.

FIG. 3 illustrates broadly how a symbiotic network operates. Actionblock 200 shows that a call is received on an incoming trunk. Test 202is used to determine whether the call is tandem for this symbioticnetwork, i.e., whether the destination specified on the call received onthe incoming trunk is a destination connected to a switch outside thesymbiotic network. If the result of test 202 indicates that this is nota tandem call, i.e., that the call can be terminated within thesymbiotic network then translation data is accessed for the terminatingnumber (action block 204). This type of data access is further describedwith respect to FIG. 4. Next, the line associated with the terminatingnumber is tested for busy including the check for call waiting servicein which case "busy" means "busy" and one call waiting (test 206). Thebusy test is another example of the general type of data access usedwithin a symbiotic network. If the line is not busy then a connection isestablished to the called customer (action block 210). The connectionmay be direct or may be reserved in the case of call waiting. This typeof connection is described with respect to FIG. 6. If the line is busyand the busy tone is returned (action block 208) in this case directlyfrom the trunk the switching system connected to the incoming trunk.

The process of obtaining translation information for the terminatingnumber may include a hunt for an available line in a multi-line huntgroup, as described with respect to FIG. 9. In this case, thetranslation information includes data for the selected available line(or a busy indication if no lines are available).

If this is a tandem call then a hunt for an outgoing trunk is performed(action block 212). As will be described with respect to FIG. 8, thishunt can include any outgoing trunk in the symbiotic network. Finally aconnection is established between the incoming trunk and the outgoingtrunk (action block 214). This connection establishment process isdescribed with respect to FIG. 8.

FIGS. 4-9 are flow diagrams illustrating how symbiotic networkfunctions, comparable to simple intraswitch functions in the prior art,are carded out.

FIG. 4 illustrates a simple data access subroutine. The subroutinestarts with the generation of a data access request (action block 300).The identity of the switch that contains the requested data is thendetermined (action block 302). In the symbiotic network it is necessarythat each switch contain the information necessary to determine directlyor indirectly which switch has the needed data. For example if the dataaccess request is a busy test, then each switch must contain informationindicating which switch serves the terminals of each directory number orit must contain information identifying another switch or data base thatcontains that information in a particular case. (If the latter is truethen the determination of the switch effectively is another subroutinesimilar to the subroutine of FIG. 4 for accessing data.) Once the switchhas been determined, test 304 is used to identify whether the switchcontaining the requested data is the same as the switch which generatedthe data access request. If so, the data is accessed in accordance withthe principles of the prior art and the data access subroutine returnsto the requesting program. If the identified switch is not the switchthat generated the data access request, then a data request message istransmitted to the identified switch (action block 310). This datamessage contains the identity of the requesting switch, some link such arequest number to allow a return message to be associated with therequesting data subroutine, and the identity of the switch requestingthe data. The switch receiving the data request message, performs theprogram whose flowchart is shown in FIG. 5 and returns a message whichis received by the requesting switch (action block 312). Once theresponse message is received, the data requesting subroutine may returnto the data requesting program.

While in the preferred embodiment, a particular segment of office datais generally stored in one switch and accessed therefrom by otherswitches, it is also possible to replicate such data to reduce thenumber of interswitch data access operations. This would be desirable ifinterswitch data access were relatively slow and the extra memoryrelatively inexpensive. Dynamic data, such as call processing data,cannot generally be replicated because of the high cost of the resourcesrequired to continuously update such replicated data.

FIG. 5 illustrates what happens when a switch receives a data requestmessage (action block 400), accesses the requested data (action block402), and transmits the requested data to the requesting switch (actionblock 404). In the return message is an identification, previouslydiscussed, to associate the return message with the requestingsubroutine.

FIG. 6 illustrates the general process of establishing a connectionwithin the symbiotic network. The program is started when a request isgenerated to connect an ingress port and an egress port (action block500). An ingress port is connected either to an originating line or toan incoming trunk. An egress port is connected either to a terminatingline or an outgoing trunk. Test 502 is then used to determine whetherthe ingress port and the egress port are on the same switch. If so, thenan intraswitch connection is established (action block 504) in theconventional manner of the prior art. If the ingress and the egress portare not on the same switch, a path is selected between the ingress andthe egress port (action block 506, further expanded in FIG. 7). Afterthe path has been selected, a controlled process is established for eachend of each communication link of the path (action block 508) and thecontrolled processes are linked to the ingress and egress processes(action block 510). Next, connections in each intermediate switch of theconnection are established if necessary (action block 512). Such aconnection is necessary if the path includes not only an ingress switch(connected to the ingress port) and an egress switch (connected toegress port) but also includes an intermediate switch. Finally actionblock 514 is used to establish connections in the ingress switch betweenthe ingress port and the port connected to the ingress switch controlledprocess, and in the egress switch between the egress port and thecommunication link associated with the controlled process in the egressswitch.

FIG. 7 illustrates the process of selecting a path. Block 600 indicatesthat a path is to be selected between an ingress port and an egress port(or between ingress port and a supplementary port, such as anintelligent peripheral, associated with a supplementary process). Test602 is used to determine whether any communication links between theingress switch and the egress switch are available. If so, one of theavailable communication links is selected for this path (action block604). If no communication links are available between the ingress andegress switches, then communication link availability data is requestedfor links between intermediate switches and the far switch. (For thepurposes of this flow chart the near switch is the one requesting that apath be selected.) This communication link availability data is thencompared with communication link availability data of the near switch(action block 608) and a pair of available communication links to commonintermediate switch is selected (action block 610). This procedure isvery similar to the procedure described for real time network routing inU.S. Pat. No. 5,101,451; the symbiotic network is of course likely to bemuch simpler than a toll network so that access information torelatively few intermediate switches will have to be examined.

In the unusual case where there are no two-link paths available betweenthe ingress and the egress switch, a link may be selected to anintermediate switch having two link paths available to the far endswitch and, using that switch as a near end switch, the actions ofblocks 606, 608 and 610 can be executed.

One of the advantages of the symbiotic network is that outgoing trunksfor the network may be efficiently shared among all the switches of thesymbiotic network. FIG. 8 illustrates the process of selecting anoutgoing trunk from the symbiotic network. According to principles ofthe prior art, the first step in selecting an outgoing trunk is to finda route index for routing a call to a destination. A route index is wellknown in the prior art and is described for example in W. Ulrich, et.al: "Translations In The No. 1 Electronic Switching System", Bell SystemTechnical Journal, pp. 2542-5, September 1964. Such a route indexprovides an identification of a trunk group and the identification of analternate route index if that trunk group is not available. By stringingtogether route indexes, a highly flexible routing arrangement may beimplemented. While not all switching networks use the exact format of aroute index, something comparable is needed in order to have theflexible routing arrangement. As a first step for routing an outgoingcall, it is necessary to determine a route index for the outgoing route.The trunk group of the route index is selected (action block 704).Action block 706 is used to identify the switch for selecting a trunkfrom the selected trunk group. For ease of selecting a trunk in a trunkgroup, a single switch is used for making this selection. This singleswitch maintains a record of which trunks are available in order to beable to make a selection. The request to select a trunk from theselected trunk group is then sent to the identified switch (action block708). Test 710 is then used to determine if any trunks are available inthe selected trunk group. If not, test 712 is used to determine whetherthere is a next route index or simply a route index indicating no moretrunks available and perhaps describing the blockage treatment. If nomore trunks are available, then blockage is reported to the requestingswitch (action block 714). If there is a next route index, then actionblock 716 is used to select a trunk group of the next route index andthe action bock 706 is reentered.

If trunks are available in a selected trunk group as indicated by apositive result in test 710, then test 720 is used to determine whetherany trunks in that group are available in the requesting switch. If so,then a trunk in the requesting switch is selected (action block 722),the selected trunk is marked busy (action block 724), and the identityof the selected trunk is reported to the requesting switch (action block726). If no trunks are available from the selected trunk group and therequesting switch, then any available trunk in the selected group isselected (action block 730) and the actions previously described ofaction block 724 and 726 are executed.

The trunks of a single trunk group can go to a plurality of differentswitches of a destination symbiotic network, since the traffic from anytrunk can be readily switched to any terminating line of that network.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating the process of selecting an egressport for a call to a multi-line hunting group (action block 800). Such amulti-line hunting group might be for example a group of agents of anautomatic all distributor that served calls to a particular telephonenumber. First the identity of the switch for selecting an egress portfor that multi-line hunting group must be determined (action block 801).A single switch is used for selecting the egress port for essentiallythe same reasons that a single switch is used for selecting a trunk in atrunk group as discussed above with respect to FIG. 8. The request toselect the egress port is transmitted to the identified switch (actionblock 802). The identified switch responds with the identity of theegress port and the identity of the switch to which that egress port isconnected (action block 804) An egress process is then established withthe egress port in the switch of that egress port (action block 806) andthe ingress and egress process are linked (action block 808).

An example of the usefulness of a symbiotic network is a distributed keytelephone system having stations connected to a plurality of theswitches of the symbiotic network (FIG. 10). Each key telephone stationhas a display for indicating the status (busy, idle, ringing, hold) ofcertain other stations, and indications of incoming calls. The keystations also have buttons or keys to allow a station to pickup anincoming call, join a conversation, disconnect from a call or place acall on hold. In a modem key telephone system, the station has a singlecommunication path to its connected switch, and a two way data link toreceive signals for controlling its display, and to transmit signalsrepresenting the operation or release of the keys or buttons. Theobjective is to allow a station to pickup calls on any of a smallplurality of equivalent line appearances, and to monitor the status ofthese line appearances. Thus, for example, a secretary may monitor thetelephones of one or more principals, and answer calls when theprincipals do not do so. Autonomous key telephone systems are expensivebut the equivalent of key telephone service can be provided from aswitching system, and, in accordance with the principles of thisapplicant's invention, from a symbiotic network. When all stations areidle, no processes are required. However, when an incoming call for anystation of the key telephone system is received or when any of the keytelephone system stations originates a call, processes are establishedfor each key telephone station. These processes control transmission ofdisplay control signals to their associated key telephone station andreceive indications of the operation or release of buttons or keys fromtheir associated station. Each station control process communicates withthe control processes of the other stations in order to update thedisplays of these other stations in response to operations or release ofpush buttons or keys by its associated key telephone station. When anincoming call is received, all stations receive the display controlsignals and a selected station receives in addition ringing signal whenany station operates a key or push button. To answer the incoming callin conjunction with going off hook, a symbiotic network connection isestablished from then incoming trunk to that station. If another stationalso picks up, a conference connection is established between theincoming trunk and the two stations.

In an alternative embodiment, a path is established to a lead station assoon as the call is received, which path stays up during the ringinginterval. If another station answers, the call is then redirected tothat other station. In one arrangement, the lead station is the one thatanswered the most recent call.

Each key telephone station has its outgoing signals detected in theconnected switch, and these signals are transmitted as messages to thecontrol processes for each station of the key telephone system fortransmission to the associated key station. Similarly, incoming callrequests have their corresponding lamp control messages sent to thesecontrol processes.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of a key telephonesystem call. An incoming call for the key telephone system is received(action block 900). The ingress process is assigned to the incomingtrunk and under the control of this ingress process incoming call datais transmitted to the processes controlling the appropriate stations ofthe key telephone system (action block 902). Translation informationstored for the key telephone system in one or more of the switches ofthe symbiotic network is accessed in order to identify which keytelephone stations are to receive calls for the called number. Theprocesses associated with these key telephone stations are eitherestablished and made active or are already active since key telephonestations are informed of calls answered by other stations. Theseprocesses then transmit to their associated key telephone stations,display control messages for indicating to these stations that anincoming call has been received (action block 904). In some cases themessage will be not only a display control message, but also a messageto cause an alerting signal to be generated at the key telephonestation. When one of the key telephone stations subsequently answers thecall, that key telephone station sends a message to the switch to whichit is connected and this message is routed to the control process forthat key telephone station (action block 906). This process then becomesan egress process for this call and in cooperation with the ingressprocess associated with the incoming trunk causes a connection to beestablished between the incoming trunk and the answering station of thekey telephone system (action block 908). The answer data is transmittedto the processes controlling the other stations of the key telephonesystem which need to know about the answer (action block 910). Theseprocesses then transmit display control messages for the answer to theappropriate stations of the key telephone system (action block 912).

A key telephone station of a key telephone system that is not connectedto a switch of the symbiotic network may still be served basically bythe symbiotic network. The distinction here is that when a connection isto be made, the connection must be made from a switch of the symbioticnetwork via a trunk to a switch of the key telephone switch, switch S4in this case. The control of signaling messages among the members of thekey telephone system is otherwise the same. The translation data for thekey telephone stations must identify the key telephone station attachedto the outside switch. The ingress process in the symbiotic network andthe egress process in the outside switch communicate directly via thesignaling network 6. Effectively, the key telephone station attached toswitch S4 is part of a virtual symbiotic network that includes the realsymbiotic network 5. Virtual symbiotic networks are discussedhereinafter with respect to FIGS. 13-15.

An enhanced path selection and connection routine must be used. Theenhancement is illustrated in FIG. 12 which shows that a request isgenerated to connect ingress port to a port outside the symbioticnetwork (action box 1000). First, an outgoing trunk is selected for theconnection to the port outside the network using the methods ofselecting an outgoing trunk previously described (action box 1002). Anegress process is established for the outgoing trunk (action box 1004)and a connection is established between the other end (an incoming end)of that trunk and the terminating port outside the network usingconventional call setup procedures (action box 1006). Also, a connectionis established between the ingress port and the outgoing trunk (actionbox 1008). The informational and control signaling for the key telephonestation is carded out between the process for the key telephone stationconnected outside the symbiotic network and the other key telephonestation processes in the same way as it is carried out when all keystations are in the symbiotic network.

Switch S4 establishes an egress process for controlling its connectedkey telephone station (action block 1010). The egress process on switchS4 and the ingress process connected to the ingress port are thenconnected by a virtual signaling channel carried over data network 6(action block 1012). A connection is established via an outgoing trunkfrom symbiotic network 5 going directly or via the public switchedtelephone network to switch S4, and a connection to the key telephonestation is established in switch S4 (action block 1014).

As defined herein, a symbiotic network comprises a group of switcheseach of which can access data in any of the switches of the group. Theswitches are connected by communication links and each switch has accessto availability data of these communication links. A single two-waytrunk group or two one-way trunk groups can be used to interconnect twosymbiotic networks, since each such network acts essentially as oneswitch; the individual trunks of the group can connect any of theswitches of one symbiotic network with any of the switches of the othersymbiotic network.

In some cases, it may be desirable to use more than one trunk group toconnect a symbiotic network to a common destination. For example, aseparate trunk group may be reserved for 911 traffic to ensure thatemergency calls can be completed even if the public network isoverloaded. A business may buy a trunk group to which its own traffic isrestricted.

Many of the advantages of a symbiotic network are obtained in a virtualsymbiotic network by providing virtual channels for communicationbetween ingress and egress processes of connections to switches that arenot in the same symbiotic network. For example, such a virtual channelcan be used to control a key telephone station connected to a switch, oranother symbiotic network, outside the original symbiotic network.Effectively, in FIG. 10 all the key stations connected to switches S1,S2 and S3 are 5 part of symbiotic network 5. The key station connectedto switch S4 is part of a virtual symbiotic network with the other keytelephone stations. Virtual symbiotic networks are especially useful forserving the stations of a single customer, the station being scatteredover several switches, each of the several switches being used largelyor primarily for serving other customers. Such a virtual symbioticnetwork is implemented through translation data in each of the switchesof the virtual symbiotic network; this translation data indicates thatwhen a connection is set up between stations of the virtual symbioticnetwork, a virtual channel is established between the control processesof the stations to allow data for enhanced call features to beexchanged. The translation information can indicate that a given stationis a member of more than one virtual symbiotic network.

Symbiotic networks and virtual symbiotic networks are ideal vehicles forimplementing Centrex type features whenever the stations of the sharingCentrex features are distributed over a plurality of switches. Thefacility of a virtual channel for signaling between ingress and egressprocesses on different switches allows the data for the Centrex to becommonly accessed and exchanged between these switches.

Foreign exchange sexy, ice can be provided efficiently and at low costusing the facilities of a symbiotic network or virtual symbioticnetwork. For example, the foreign termination is given a class ofservice which defines it as one member of a virtual symbiotic network,the other member being the local termination. If the two terminationsare part of a symbiotic or virtual symbiotic network, foreign exchangeservice can be provided even more easily since the terminals of thesymbiotic network operate as if they were on a common switch.

Symbiotic networks are a convenient way of locating telephone operatorsand their associated operator assistance switches remotely from acentralized operator assistance switch. The operator assistance switchescan be combined into one symbiotic network. Operators working from homeor from scattered locations can be combined into a virtual symbioticnetwork and derive many of the benefits of being in a single symbioticnetwork.

Specialized circuits such as IP 24 may be included in a virtualsymbiotic network, for example, with the stations sharing Centrexfeatures, or with the stations of a symbiotic network, so that largergroups of such circuits may be physically located, and controlled,together, and may share common resources; for example, many speechrecognition front end circuits can share one bulk message.

The switches of a large cellular telecommunications network can becombined into a single symbiotic :network. This simplifies the problemof "handing off" traffic from one cellular mobile switch to another whenthe connected mobile moves from one area to another.

FIG. 13 illustrates a virtual symbiotic network. The network comprisesthree switches S7, S8, . . . , S9 each connected to a plurality oftelephone stations 101, . . . , 102; 103, . . . , 104; and 105, . . . ,106; respectively. The switches are interconnected by the publicswitched telephone network 100. Each switch may contain lines which arenot part of the virtual symbiotic network. (Some of these lines may bepart of another virtual symbiotic network.) When a connection is madebetween stations on the virtual symbiotic network, (i.e., one of thestations 101, . . . , 102; 103, . . . , 104; and 105, . . . , 106,) aningress process 110 is associated with the originating station and anegress process 111 is associated with the terminating station. A virtualchannel 120 is established between the ingress process and the egressprocess to permit these processes to exchange data and to access data inthe switches in which each of these processes reside.

FIG. 14 illustrates some of the translation information that is requiredto implement a virtual symbiotic network, in this case, for Centrex typeservice. The primary translation entry for one of the stations on thesymbiotic network, entry 1100, includes data for locating asupplementary table 1101, and an identification of the virtual symbioticnetwork 1102. The data for locating may be a direct or indirect address,or, especially if the table is located in another switch, a key forlocating that table; the key may be tied to the identification of thevirtual symbiotic network. Table 1110 is a table to translate betweenthe access number (typically an abbreviated number dialed by a Centrexextension) and a conventional telephone number 1112 for routing the callto the station specified by the access number 1111.

FIG. 15 illustrates the process of establishing a call in a virtualsymbiotic network. The process of establishing a call begins when theoriginating station lifts its receiver (action block 1200). Theoriginating office assigns an ingress process to the call (action block1202). The station dials a virtual symbiotic network number (in thiscase, a Centrex number) (action block 1204). The translation data of theoriginating switch illustrated in FIG. 14 provides the virtual symbioticnetwork identification and an address of the virtual symbiotic networktable (action block 1206). The virtual symbiotic network table providesthe telephone number of the destination (action block 1208). (A fulltelephone number is used to simplify the routing of the call.) The callis then established to the terminating switch but the SS7 signalingmessage used to establish the call includes a virtual symbiotic networkindicator and the identification of the virtual symbiotic network(action block 1210). While the preferred embodiment uses SS7,alternative signaling arrangements can be used instead. For example, aproprietary message standard could be used in order to avoidmodifications of the standards governing SS7. The terminating officeassigns an egress process (action block 1212). A virtual channel is thenestablished between the ingress process of the originating switch andthe egress process of the terminating switch (action block 1214). Thisallows these two switches to exchange all information necessary forimplementing the specialized service. The connection in the terminatingswitch is established under the control of the egress process (actionblock 1216). The control and exchange of information between the ingressand egress processes can, for example, be used to reroute the call toanother station of the virtual symbiotic network in another switch.

In an alternative embodiment, a call setup request message can be sentto the terminating switch (or a switch containing data for selecting anavailable member of a multi-line hunt group) in advance of establishingany connections so that a busy test can be performed .and a line seizedbefore a voice connection is established.

While in FIG. 10, the key telephone stations connected to switches S1,S2 and S3 are part of a symbiotic network, they can also form all orpart of a virtual symbiotic network with the control processes for eachstation communicating by virtual data channels and with the switchesinterconnected as discussed for FIG. 13. The key telephone stations ineither event can be part of a larger customer network such as a Centrexnetwork.

FIG. 16 illustrates another application of symbiotic network for numberportability. By number portability, in this case is meant the ability toswitch a customer station from one line termination associated with onelocation to another line termination associated with a differentlocation. In the specific embodiment shown in FIG. 16, a subscriberdials a request to register at the new location (action block 1300) Sucha request should include information to identify the subscriber'stelephone number and privacy data such as a personal identificationnumber to ensure that an outside individual cannot effectively interceptcalls for that subscriber by taking on the directory number of thatsubscriber. The receiving switch verifies the personal identificationnumber from the data base for the subscriber or for the customer fromwhich the subscriber is a member and notifies the switch containing datafor that subscriber (action block 1302). The switch then updates thedata base (action block 1304). The subscriber receives a verificationannouncement (action block 1306) as a partial insurance against themisuse. An announcement is sent to the original location and is repeatedperiodically if no answer is received. (action block 1308). Theattributes of the symbiotic network or a virtual symbiotic networkincluding a port connected to the subscriber's new wall jack appearancemake the movement of subscribers relatively straightforward because thedata for the subscribers is effectively shared among the switches of thesymbiotic or virtual symbiotic network.

A symbiotic network can be used to improve the reliability of service tospecialized customers such as stockbrokers for whom loss of service canbe devastating. First, the agents of the stockbroker can be distributedover a number of switches of the symbiotic network. Protection isobtained against the loss of any of these switches since incoming callsto any switch can readily be completed to any other switch of thesymbiotic network. Secondly, trunk groups from other switches may beconnected to more than one switch of the symbiotic network, so that ifone switch fails, traffic can flow through the other switches. Third,the individual agents may be arranged to have key telephone stationsconnected to two switches with the connection to one of the two switchesnormally unused. Effectively, a symbiotic network is like one giantswitch so that the failure of one of its switches is like the failure ofonly a segment of the giant switch.

FIGS. 17 and 18 show the partial contents of ingress and egressprocesses and controlled processes respectively. An ingress/egressprocesses (FIG. 17) includes the identification of the port controlledby the process, identification of the port at the other end, of aconnection (i.e., the identification of the terminating line of a lineport or a trunk port connected to the symbiotic network, not atintra-symbiotic network port.) The ingress/egress process also includeslinks to other control processes, supplementary processes, andcontrolled processes. Also included is the called directory number, pathinformation for the call, and data describing the characteristics of thetrunk or line connected to the port. In contrast, a controlled process(FIG. 18) only contains the identity of the associated port and the portconnected by the switch of the controlled process to that port. While itmay be desirable to also have information, for reverse linkage in orderto be able to notify the controlling processes, (i.e., the ingressand/or egress processes) of failures in network connections for thepurposes of establishing and disconnecting calls the specified dataappears to be all that is necessary.

The techniques discussed herein for the symbiotic network can be usedindividually or in combination for a virtual symbiotic network. Some ofthe techniques can be applied to only a portion of the lines of aswitch, such as the lines for a particular customer. For example, if acall involves a line of such a customer, the data access arrangements ofFIGS. 4 and 5 can be used to access a master data base for the customer;the switch representing the data access must know the identity of theswitch that contains this master data base (which includes a table suchas table 1110 of FIG. 14) and stores that identity in its data base. Theuse of combined trunk groups such as 41 and 51 can be used for privatetrunk groups interconnecting switches of such a customer to providegreater diversity of facilities to protect against trouble or disasterconditions. The technique of an advance request for a busy test or anadvance selection of an available line of multi-line hunt groups asdescribed in FIG. 9 can be used in such arrangements to avoidestablishing unnecessary connections.

The technique of FIG. 7 can be used in conjunction with private trunksdedicated permanently or through a software defined networkinterconnecting switches of a virtual symbiotic network. Similarly, thetechniques of FIG. 8 can be used to select a private trunk (dedicatedpermanently or through a software defined network) interconnectingswitches of a virtual symbiotic network.

In the preferred embodiment, the virtual channels between processes arechannels on a permanent virtual channel between the switches of theseprocesses. In addition, the switches themselves use virtual channelsover such permanent virtual circuits to communicate between the controlsof these switches.

It is to be understood that the above description is only of onepreferred embodiment of the invention. Numerous other arrangements maybe devised by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope ofthe invention. The invention is thus limited only as defined in theaccompanying claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. In a telecommunications network comprisinga plurality of stand-alone switches, a method of routing a callcomprising the steps of:grouping the plurality of ports on saidplurality of stand-alone switches into a virtual symbiotic network;receiving a call comprising a called number in a receiving switch ofsaid plurality of switches; determining which switch stores the data foridentifying a location of a port specified by the called number; if theidentified switch is the receiving switch, accessing the requested datawithin the receiving switch; if the identified switch is not thereceiving switch, transmitting a data request message to the identifiedswitch, accessing the requested data in the identified switch, andtransmitting the requested data back to the requesting switch; providingthe requested data to the requesting program in the receiving switch;and using the requested data to control establishment of a connection tothe identified port.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising thestep of providing number portability by changing the data in theidentified switch to reflect the new location of the port identified bythe called number.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the stepsof:assigning an ingress process to said received call for an ingressport on which said call is received; assigning an egress process to saididentified port; assigning a virtual channel for direct communicationsbetween said ingress process and said egress process for implementingfeatures of said call.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein one of saidplurality of ports is for connection to a work at home station.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 wherein:the step of receiving a call comprisesreceiving a call for a multi-line hunt group; and the step of accessingthe requested data in the identified switch comprises accessing data forselecting a port connected to an available line of said multi-line huntgroup.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein a group of trunks is dedicatedfor use by ports of said virtual symbiotic network.
 7. The method ofclaim 6 wherein different trunks of said group of trunks terminate on atleast two of said plurality of stand-alone switches, whereby reliableservice is obtained even in the presence of trouble in one of saidstand-alone switches.
 8. In a telecommunicating network, a stand-aloneswitch comprising:data for identifying a location of data pertaining toports of a virtual symbiotic network, said data pertaining to portsstored in a plurality of switches connected to said ports of saidvirtual symbiotic network; data link means for accessing a data networkconnected to said other switches; processor means for controllingaccessing of data in said plurality of switches via said data network;said processor means for controlling call processes for controlling callprocessing for call connections between ones of said ports of saidsymbiotic network; wherein said call processes cooperate with controlprocesses of others of said plurality of switches, using data accessedin the other switches, and using messages sent between said stand-aloneswitch and said other switches to establish connections between ports ofsaid virtual symbiotic network.